Welcome to Winter 2018
Alix Goodwin,
CEO, National Parks Association of NSW
Welcome to our 2018 Winter Edition of Nature NSW. With summer weather extending well into Autumn, Anne Dickson and I began a series of visits to NPA branches. We were warmly welcomed by both the Milton-Ulladulla and Far South Coast branches, learning about their history, and hearing about current issues of concern. Next stop is Macarthur in July followed by branches in the north, all going well.
This edition of Nature NSW has a focus on water. As former NPA President John Turnbull writes in his article Saving our underwater forests, while we are familiar with threats posed to our terrestrial forests, we tend to know less about the kelp and algae forests that adorn the seafloor. Focusing on our southern oceans, John calls to notice these threats in an era of climate change, while exploring the beauty that can be preserved through the establishment of marine reserves in his Bass Point dive article. David Hufton has contributed an important piece on the proposed raising of the Warragamba Dam wall and the damage this will wreak on the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. And Meron Wilson from our newly formed Sydney book club has contributed a review of Tim Flannery’s Sunlight and Seaweed.
In mid-December, the NSW Coalition government finally announced the long overdue second and third five-yearly reviews of NSW Regional Forest Agreements (RFA) with the release of a 368-page performance report. The government also re-affirmed its commitment to extending RFAs for a further 20 years irrespective of the review’s outcome. Backed by the evidence from our 2016 review, NPA successfully drove 2,000 submissions to the independent review. This drew the ire of the Federal Government with Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Senator Anne Ruston, accusing us of misleading Australians on the performance of RFAs. This could not have been further from the truth and, with our written request that the Senator withdraw her allegations failing to elicit even an acknowledgement, we felt compelled to assure our members and supporters that our campaign was based on solid evidence. So, we released both Senator Ruston’s letter and our response to the Guardian Australia. Our campaign to end public native forest logging continues.
To support the campaign visit: www. npansw.org.au/npa/support-our-appeal
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